Forming plates are known for example from German Patent Number DE 35 29 671 C1 and are used in star-shaped knife dough-portioning and dough-forming machines for the portioning and/or shaping of dough, particularly for the forming of dough into rounds. The forming plates have a plate-like shape, one side of which is intended and designed for the portioning and forming of the dough, the other side of which is only for portioning of the dough. The first-mentioned side is provided within a circular working surface area with a regular array of forming bowls, whereas the working surface area of the other side, which lies opposite the first-mentioned side, is smooth. Along a circle, which is concentric to the working surface area, there is a series of radially extending grooves distributed uniformly around the circumference. Such grooves may be found on both sides of the forming plate. These grooves fulfil a number of purposes. They mark, in the plane of the forming plate, the working surface area, namely the zone on which dough is to be uniformly deposited for the formation of rounds or dough portions of defined mass. They also constitute venting grooves which prevent the formation of air pockets and the consequential irregular mass distribution of the dough within the chamber which receives the dough.
Depending upon the prevailing light conditions, and also upon the degree of contamination of the aforesaid grooves, in which under certain circumstances residual dough can remain, the marking function of the groove arrangement can be impaired. Depositing dough on the forming plate in an area which is not matched to the working surface area has the consequence that the round forms or dough portions which are made have too small a mass and for this reason cannot be used. The marking of the working surface area for the dough portioning process is of particular importance.
In order to carry out a forming process, the forming plate which is fixed to the forming table of a bakery machine has a defined quantity of dough deposited on its upper surface within its working surface area. This quantity of dough is then divided into portions by means of a knife arrangement which defines respective portioning chambers, and by circular motion of the forming plate, which is carried out within its plane. Each dough portion is subjected to a rounding process which involves a rolling of the dough portion against the adjacent walls of the knife arrangement so that finally a ball-shaped product is created. Each portioning chamber has a forming bowl associated therewith, and, based upon the inside profiling of the forming bowl, during the circulating movement of the forming plate there is an entraining effect exerted on the respective dough portions which are located within the portioning chambers.
These portioning chambers are generally made the same size, so that the formation of products of the same size and shape will be achieved. However, since the radius of the circular movement of the forming plate is the same for all portioning chambers, geometrically caused differences adversely affect the entrainment effect exerted by the forming bowls on the portions of dough. This leads to qualitatively different end products, depending upon the position of the respective portioning chambers. This effect will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the drawings.
The forming bowls customarily have a profiling of the type comprising a plurality of step-wise successive and concentric annular edges. In order to be able to exert an entraining effect on the dough portions within the portioning chambers, wherein the dough skin is drawn towards the inside by the cutting edges of the portioning chambers, a penetration of the annular edge profiles into the substance of the dough is necessary. If this penetration is insufficient, the entraining effect exerted on the dough is correspondingly reduced. The definitive shaping of the annular edge profile is made more difficult, among other things, by virtue of the fact that the dough cut up in the portioning chambers by the portioning process is initially extraordinarily sticky in the region of the cutting edges, especially with soft dough. Therefore the dough tends to remain in any appropriately dimensioned recesses, grooves or the like. This property of the dough makes it necessary to avoid sharp edges or acutely angled profile shapes when designing the aforesaid profilings, and to make these comparatively flat. However, this again reduces the usefulness of the forming plate in handling relatively dry, kneaded dough, since the ability of flat, blunt profilings to penetrate into this type of dough is correspondingly reduced. Thus the entraining effect exerted on the dough within the framework of the forming process is made worse.